Oppenheimer won’t release on digital or streaming until late November, at the earliest. Speaking to the Associated Press, producer Emma Thomas confirmed that the biopic will continue playing in theatres due to its strong demand, which still draws large crowds into the cinemas. This is far longer than the industry standard of pushing films into home video 45 days after their theatrical debut. Considering its Paris premiere on July 11, by the time we reach November, Oppenheimer would’ve played in theatres for 16 weeks/ 112 days. Its pink-tinted companion Barbie, however, is already available to stream as video-on-demand, arriving 54 days after its global theatrical release.
Clearly, those who were planning a double-feature watch party at home will have a wait a little longer. The internet-born ‘Barbenheimer’ event will forever be etched into film history as the day when two blockbuster films with juxtaposing themes vied for dominance when they both released on July 21. While Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer served as a stark biopic on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, Greta Gerwig brought Barbie to life, with candy-coated feminist tale centred on Mattel’s popular fashion doll. Despite being billed as rivals, both films contributed to each other’s success and now top the global box office charts of 2023. Oppenheimer currently ranks third amongst the biggest movies of the year, having collected $913.1 million (about Rs. 7,586) at the global box office. There’s a good chance that Universal Pictures extended the theatrical run hoping that it would help nudge the film into the billion-dollar club. That’s where Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie are vibing.
“We’ve been incredibly lucky in our careers. We’ve had some really great moments before. We’ve had some very successful films that have allowed us to continue making films,” producer Thomas said in the interview. “But I would argue that this one is the most successful when you look at what the film was and then how it’s played out.” Internationally, audiences have been experiencing Oppenheimer the way Nolan intended — on 70mm IMAX. As such, she suggested that after nine weeks of continued use, the film prints would need to be rested, with those in good condition being saved for re-releases in the future.
Oppenheimer explores the politics and drama surrounding the creation of the first atomic bomb, through the eyes of the renowned theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). Set in an isolated community in Los Alamos, the Harvard graduate muses about war and obsessively navigates the Manhattan Project amidst World War II, all the way up to the Trinity Test. It is worth noting that when Oppenheimer does eventually make it to digital, one shouldn’t expect any extra scenes since nothing’s been cut from the movie. The film should then roll out onto streaming services, dropping on JioCinema in India due to its newly-forged partnership with NBCUniversal. Internationally audiences should be able to stream it on Peacock.
Oppenheimer is still playing in theatres worldwide.
